Black Desert’s Arsha PvP server is live today, while absolute skills for all classes go live next week

Brand-new PvP server Arsha is live as promised in Black Desert today. It’s running an alternative ruleset with “notably increased defense” stats, extra debuff immunities, altered damage calculations, and no world bosses. The intent, Kakao says, is “to enable fairer, less one-sided fights.” Just remember: “PvP between Characters (including Forced PvP) will be free from all penalties” unless you’re already saddled with an evil karma rating.

But the bigger news coming out of the South Korean import today is its plans for absolute skills.

“Over the last two years, all 15 available classes received the first awakening weapon that provided Black Desert Online players with a whole new way to play their characters,” Kakao explains. “It unlocked new powerful combos, fighting styles and tactical advantages that made each class more diverse, but it also meant that many players diverted away from their main weapon skills. To rival the awakening weapons, Pearl Abyss has developed the Absolute Skills which balances the original main weapon with regards to damage output, giving players unprecedented freedom and a huge array of combat tactics to overcome even the toughest challenge.”

All characters level 56 and up – and more importantly, all 15 classes – will have access to these skills as of next week’s patch on February 28th.